Tag Archives: dusk

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast, Photographs: San Francisco

Muir Beach Overlook, Sutro Tower, Dusk

September 7, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

San Francisco’s Sutro Tower is visible in the distance beyond the Muir Beach Overlook in dusk light, in the Marin Headlands.

A few moments before making this photograph, I had decided that I was done for the evening, as the light was fading very fast and the brilliant and intense sunset and post-sunset colors were draining from the scene. But a turn or two up the road I came upon this overlook, with its view traversing the steep headlands toward the south to where the low hills of San Francisco just outside the Golden Gate were visible, Sutro Tower stood high above these hills, and subtle shades of blue and rose light were still visible.

So we pulled over, and I quickly got set up – again! – and made a few exposures in this dying light. This light is just about as subtle and difficult to photograph as it gets. In fact, I almost didn’t bother! On the scene, it was quite dark – darker than this rendition would suggest. And in that darker dusk, the haze that here partially conceals the San Francisco hills made them almost invisible.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Abstract, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Textures, Photographs: Yosemite

Reflected Evening Sky, Tuolumne River

July 15, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A solitary boulder interrupts the flow of the Tuolumne River as it reflects the colors of sunset sky, Yosemite National Park.

I’m just back from a few days photographing in the greater Tuolumne Meadows area of the Yosemite and the Sierra. I stayed in Tuolumne for a couple of nights and then one additional night at a forest service campground just east of the pass, allowing me the better part of four days of photography in the area between about Tenaya Lake and the pass, plus some areas east of the pass. I even managed to get down to Mono Lake for one very early morning shoot. For those who haven’t been up there yet this season, this is a very different year in many ways related to climate. It is dry! There is virtually no snow left except in the usual “permanent” areas on the highest peaks, water levels are very low, and overall it looks a lot more like late August or even September. (But look around and you’ll still find wildflowers.) Areas of the forest, especially higher up and near passes, seem to have suffered a lot of damage in a late-2011 wind storm. I’ve never seen so many trees downed by wind as I saw near Tioga Pass on this visit.

Since I was camping in Tuolumne Meadows, one day I used the midday hours that are less conducive to photography to scout a few locations along the Tuolumne River. I wandered down from camp, across the meadows, and over towards Soda Springs. From here I picked out a few likely prospects for evening photography – a bend in the river with some interesting trees, a large boulder that might front a photograph of the Cockscomb, and a few others. That evening I returned, hoping for interesting lighting. It was one of those evenings that held the possibility of very interesting sunset and post-sunset light. There were dissipating clouds above the Sierra crest, some clouds directly overhead, and clearing to the west. These conditions can allow light to shine up under the clouds from the west at sunset, and can produce intensely colorful displays. I never know for sure that this will happen, but I know that the conditions increase the chances a great deal… so I’m willing to be there and ready to photograph if it does happen. On this evening it didn’t quite happen. It was a lovely evening and there were colors, but nothing tremendously out of the (relatively nice) ordinary. During the last few minutes of color I was thinking about how there was nothing to the west that could make a photograph that included the light appearing that direction, when I happened to look down on the surface of the river to see this rock and these patterns on the surface of the water.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Sandstone Towers, Evening Sky

May 26, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening clouds above sandstone towers and desert terrain, Arches National Park.

I think I can manage to coax one more photograph out of my collection of shots from my first evening in Arches National Park back in early April. To recap the story, we checked into a motel in Moab in the middle of the afternoon, and then had enough time to make a late afternoon and evening foray into Arches. We ended up in the “Windows” area just before sunset and ended our day shooting here as the sun set and then on into the evening.

I didn’t get anything of particular note that included the arches for which this spot is known – for example the North and South Windows. (I did photograph the South Window, but by this time the light wasn’t quite what I was looking for.) The wind was very strong, so I ended up behind some of the main rocky formations looking for shelter, and this provided a fairly clear view to the east just after the sun set. In this direction there was a small cluster of red sandstone formations, and as the evening sky begin to clear just a bit and the post-sunset cast a glow over the sky and the land beneath I made a few photographs in this beautiful soft light.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Sandstone Towers, Moon Rising Through Clouds

May 24, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The full moon rises in a cloudy sky above sandstone towers, Arches National Park, Utah.

These rocks are near but not exactly part of the windows area at Arches National Park, where we ended up at the end of our first day there. We had arrived in Moab in the afternoon and then driven up into the park very late in the day – more or less gasping in amazement at the geology we were seeing for the first time – and finally ended up in this area just before sunset.

I’m repeating a story I wrote about earlier, so I’ll make the first part short. There was beautiful light leading up to sunset, and there were some interesting clouds in the sky to the north. However, it was extremely windy, making longer exposures as the light faded a real challenge and also making lens changes unwise. After sunset I ended up in the shelter of some rock towers where I found some protection from the wind. I knew that this was going to be a full moon night, but I was a bit concerned that by the time it was high enough that the ambient light would be somewhat dark, making it very difficult to photograph the twilight surroundings and the very bright moon in a single exposure. But as the moon rose and I found a location from which I could position it and the rocks together, high thin clouds partially obscured the moon and allowed my longer exposures for the dim foreground to work. I might have used a longer lens, but the thought of changing lenses in the blowing wind convinced me to just go ahead and shoot with the lens I already had on the camera – and in the end I think that let me produce a more natural view of the moon than I might have achieved with a longer telephoto.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: dusk

Muir Beach Overlook, Sutro Tower, Dusk

Reflected Evening Sky, Tuolumne River

Sandstone Towers, Evening Sky

Sandstone Towers, Moon Rising Through Clouds

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.